We have a wonderful friend and neighbor, Christy, who long ago worked with my dad at the University of Utah. She's such a lovely and kind person. She bought a condo in St. George because she likes to stay there for long stretches of time and volunteer as an usher at the Tuacahn Theater near the mouth of Snow Canyon. It's such a fun place to see plays. And Christy has taken notice of the fact that our family are theater fans. She's able to earn points somehow for free tickets and she chooses to share a few with us each summer. Isn't that nice? This was the second year she has sent us to Tuacahn, and we already have dates lined up for 2024.
In a happy alignment of the stars, the tickets coincided with the open house for the St. George temple. That's the temple I went through for the first time, 29 short years ago. It has been completely remodeled, and I really wanted to see it as well as show it to my daughters before its rededication. It was actually so hard to get tickets! Luckily we worked it all out, and I was able to keep Emma out of school for a Friday for the trip.
Sadly, it also just so happened to be the same weekend that Peter and Sheri were going to be away, taking a break-neck trek across the Grand Canyon and back again in just two days. We were bummed that we wouldn't be able to spend much time with them. But since we were coming Friday morning instead of Friday evening, we did get to see them for a little!
First came the temple open house, which was a very popular event. There were so many people there! Cara came along with us - she and Emma held hands pretty much the whole time. Oh how I love how much they love each other! Despite the long wait and the very warm air, we really enjoyed seeing the temple. It's such a beautiful place.
That evening we saw our first show - The Hunchback of Notre Dam. Our first surprise was that our tickets were not in the location that Christy and I had discussed on the phone. We were in the PRIMO seats! They had cushions, came with complimentary water bottles, and were seriously front and center! Thank you Christy!
The play was amazing. I mean, AMAZING. The voices, especially Frolo's. The set! It was all very breathtaking. Interestingly, the music from the Disney movie was used, with some additional songs. However, the plot of the play stuck much more closely to that of the novel, sad ending and all. We were absolutely blown away.
Saturday gave us some hang-out time at the house, including some snuggles with their old dogs and lots of playtime with their sweet new puppy, Tucker. He is so darling and sweet, especially for a puppy. It's sad how old their first two dogs are getting! Gabby just wanted to snuggle and sleep. I know the feeling, sister.
On Saturday morning, I dropped the girls off at the farm down the street, where Halloween is celebrated all fall long. Cute Siena got a job as one of the performers, a witch who became known as Twitch, since she was the only teenaged-witch of the group. They have a breakfast you can buy tickets to called waffles and witches. I only got two, and was happy to have Romney and Emma see the show. I think they felt a little silly, since almost every other guest was 8 years old or younger, accompanied by a parent. But they had fun watching Siena do her thing.
That evening was Tarzan. We did not get the fancy seats this time, which had its advantages and disadvantages. The only downside was that we had seat-neighbors who seemed to be really sad they were at the play and would have preferred to be watching hockey on their phone, which they did for the first few minutes. Luckily the guy knocked it off 5 minutes into the show. The advantage was that that although we were a bit farther away from the stage, we were right underneath the wires that carried actors through the air down to the stage. So we had gorillas and Tarzan and Jane flying right above us.
The show was once again magnificent. The best part was that the actor playing Tarzan was the original actor from the Broadway show. He was just wonderful!
Oh, one last thing. I can't write about this weekend without mentioning an event that I consider to be a real miracle. I'll try to keep it short - I have a dear friend who lives in Texas. She has a daughter who got home from a mission several months ago, and is now living at BYU in Provo, going to school. I've meant to contact her forever, but haven't. This cute girl came to mind as I was preparing for the trip, and I tried to contact her. It turns out I didn't have her number, so I contacted her mother in Texas. Mother let me know that it just so happened that the daughter was waiting for news on whether or not she had gotten into nursing school, which was her dream. Over the weekend, the mom let me know that daughter, just as feared, did not get into nursing school. I decided to put together a little care package for daughter to drop off on the way home. Now, this might not seem like a big deal, but when you think about it, it absolutely was. I hadn't thought about this gal for ages. Then to suddenly not only think of her but actually do the work to get in touch? Just when a major disappointment came her way? And I was in a position to see her, hug her, put my arms around her when her mom was so far away? It was clear to me that there was a purpose in her not getting into nursing school this time - her Heavenly Father knew what was happening. He hadn't forgotten her. He knew, He cared, He sent a message to make sure she knew this. I was able to bear witness of these feelings to sweet Nicole and assure her that all would be well. Just as Chase wasn't able to serve a mission right when he wanted to, she needed to wait. For a reason. It made us all cry.
Ok. Miracle noted.
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